Standing Together
by RayneSummer
Summary: Hiccup tries to keep his fellow Dragon Riders in control, but that's hard when their own dragons have gone missing! When the team find them, it seems that something more sinister is behind the disappearance. They must all work together, dragons and riders, to fight for their island and for the friendships with their dragons.


**I'm into How To Train Your Dragon animated films at the moment, after seeing the second one when it came out and twice again afterwards! They're so amazing and I absolutely love the storyline. I've also read most of the books and love those too, but, importantly to enjoy both, I see books and movies as almost completely separate entities. This is a short story about the characters from the films/TV show Dragons Riders/Defenders of Berk, as I decided I had to do something to show how much I love these films. Enjoy!**

**PS: Sorry for disappearing for so long - I've been busy, one could say, and not in the position to write or think up ideas. I am aware I have unfinished stories on here, and aim to finish them _hopefully _soon; but I don't actually know when they will be updated. Thanks for bearing with me if you enjoy reading my stories, and I will try to get back on track with writing. For now, onwards.**

* * *

Sighing, the only Hope and Heir to the Tribe the Hairy Hooligans scanned his Academy members as they stood around the arena, arguing and shoving to one another and generally being very loud. Their dragons weren't behind them, as Toothless was faithfully sitting behind his rider, either.

All in all, it didn't look like it was going to be a stress-free day for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.

As usual, then.

Clearing his throat, Hiccup tried to speak above the hubbub around him. "Guys! We have to get to work!"

Unfortunately, all that happened was that Astrid yelled louder at Snotlout - something about him having such a big nose that she just _had _to punch him in the face when she saw him - and the twins banged their helmets together, interlocking the horns on them, for a staring contest about whatever disagreement they were currently having.

The only dragon present in the arena, Toothless the Night Fury, sitting behind his master, grumbled quietly and lay down, half-shutting his eyes but still keeping an eye on the situation in case he had to intervene with anything.

Hiccup, Toothless' rider, sighed again, surveying the chaos. He was getting kind of bothered about the others - where in the archipelago were their dragons _now_? - and quite bored with the whole having-to-teach-teen-viking-with-and-about-dragons thing that had been going on since his father, the Chief of the Tribe, had allowed him to open this academy.

He felt kind of off today, actually. And was getting pretty annoyed about everyone else.

Suddenly, he was completely done with the others' interruptions. "I SAID EVERYONE STOP FIGHTING AND GET IN LINE, WE HAVE WORK TO DO!" he yelled at the other teenage Vikings.

A silence descended on the arena as Astrid blinked at Hiccup in the middle of punching Snotlout in the stomach and the twins stared at him with their mouths open, horns still locked together. Behind Hiccup, Toothless slowly sat up, frowning slightly at the back of his rider's head.

This was most unlike the usually calm dragon-trainer they all knew.

However, Hiccup now had the other Vikings' attention, and they stopped fighting and hitting each other, and indeed stood in the line in front of their peer, who was panting from shouting and glaring at all of them as if they had broken Tribal Law.

In actual fact, it was Hiccup who was being strange, so really someone should have been glaring at him, but all the others were too stunned by his outburst to think of this, so there you go.

Within about 30 seconds, the arena turned from a noisy place full of fighting young teens and a frustrated teacher with a bored dragon, to a silent place with five of the Vikings facing the sixth one, blinking in surprise.

"For Thor's sake," continued Hiccup in a still loud, frustrated, tone of voice, though he now had everyone's attention, "no WONDER we never get ANYTHING done; this is why me dad is ALWAYS telling me that YELLING works and to be more like HIM."

Although this fact would have been true before the whole Vikings-and-Dragons thing, it wasn't really now, as anyone who talked to Stoick would know that he was actually - at the moment, for Vikings and fathers in general can be quite fickle - he was rather proud of his only son.

Deciding to intervene and hopefully bring a bit more of lesson-sense in the, well, lesson, Astrid stepped forward and said in a firm but kind (as Astrid went) voice, "yes, Hiccup, we know. Now we're ready, could we get on with the lesson?"

She actually wanted to continue punching Snotlout for a good few minutes, but it's remarkable what a yelling viking can do to a person's choices.

It only took a minute for Hiccup to calm down, realising that maybe he had gone a _tad _overboard - but, to be fair to him, Vikings in general, let alone teenagers, were incredibly frustrating to handle.

So he took at breath, glanced behind his back to see Toothless watching him slightly worriedly, and turned back to the other teens, waiting politely in a far-from-straight-line for his lesson. It was about as good as they were going to get, so Hiccup went on with the lesson.

"Alright. This is a boarding/destroying-an-enemy-ship lesson," he began, and frowned round at the vikings again. "But you will, as you may guess from the title, your dragons. Where are they?" he asked the group as a whole.

There was a bit of muttering and Fishlegs, who had just been sitting unnoticed against the stone wall of the arena until Hiccup had shouted, offered, "um, I don't think any of us have actually seen our dragons since last night."

"Ah." Yes, that would be a problem for this lesson, Hiccup thought.

It would also explain why Toothless was the only dragon present this morning. As his dragon rarely left his side and, well, couldn't fly on his own anyway, it wasn't often that Hiccup misplaced his own dragon. But apparently everyone else had.

Which meant... the first thing for this morning would be _finding _the dragons.

But that would also be slightly hard if, according to Fishlegs, the had indeed not been since since the night before.

With a third sigh, Hiccup resigned the day to spending the morning looking for dragons, then simply having a free flight in the afternoon. That would have to do.

And so, he coughed slightly self-consciously - having just realised that he had got so annoyed that he had full-on yelled at the others - and announced, "well, first we'll have to _find _the dragons, and then just go and do some scouting this afternoon." He eyed the group. "Does anyone have any idea where they might be?"

The boarding/destroying-an-enemy-ship-from-the-air-on-a-dragon lesson would have to wait, after all.

* * *

Half an hour later found six slightly dirty and sweaty young Viking warriors meeting again the the middle of the forest clearing.

"This is pointless," Snotlout sighed loudly, leaning against a tree but misjudging in his weariness and leaning against a branch instead, causing it to snap from the weight of the viking and Snotlout fell on the forest floor with a thump.

No one paid him any attention, muttering to themselves about what to do now.

Astrid was actually becoming rather concerned by now, as Stormfly usually came when she called. Apart from Hiccup and Toothless, Astrid probably had the second most strongest bond with her dragon.

Glancing around the forest as though the dragons may just appear, Hiccup thought hard. He, too, was surprised that after searching for the dragons, they had not turned up. There was something slightly sinister about it, too, but as Hiccup always thought anything to do with dragons was slightly sinister, the others had denied any sinister-like involvement with the dragons' disappearance.

Which still left the question of where were they. A question that no one seemed able to answer.

Yep, it was really seeming slightly-sinister at this point.

"Um, guys...? You really should come and see this." Fishlegs' voice came from the edge of the clearing, where the pre-teen was looking out through the trees in wonder and horror.

"Hey, is it a clue?" Tuffnut asked, chuckling as he wondered over to Fishlegs.

"Yeah, we're the BEST at following clues," Ruffnut added, high-fiving her brother.

Hiccup facepalmed and hung his head for a second. The twins weren't good at much, except destruction, and following clues was something they DEFINITELY were worse-than-usual about doing. It was like watching an excellent detective who had suffered a Trepanning operation.

So, dragging his feet, Hiccup sighed and walked over to where now all the Vikings - apart from Snotlout, who hadn't yet bothered to get up from falling beside the tree, and had actually fallen asleep on the forest floor - were standing, looking out with that mixed look of wonder and horror.

It bothered Hiccup slightly, and reminded him of something, but he couldn't place it.

Until he looked where they were looking too.

How had they missed _that_?

For next to the clearing where they had been standing, there was a huge cave surrounded by trees, and outside that cave were...

"Dragons," breathed Astrid, eyes wide. Not just any dragons either - it was _their _dragons. They were sleeping, and, as Hiccup looked closer, he noticed they all had traps attached to their legs or wings, preventing them from getting away, and leather muzzles around their faces, so they couldn't call for help.

As always, the sight of innocent dragons - epecially when he knew them - being hurt angered Hiccup, and he turned to the stock-still Vikings beside him.

"Who was in charge of this area?" he demanded. Everyone stared at him, except Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who glanced at each other instead and began to edge away, immediately gaining Hiccup's attention.

But he didn't explode over the Twins' lack of attention to their area. He frowned disapprovingly at them, but just rolled his eyes, having more important things to deal with, like getting the dragons out of their traps.

"Stormfly!" Astrid suddenly called, spotting her dragon among the trapped ones and running to her. Hiccup started to stop her but she ignored him and gently stroked the Nadder's back to wake her before trying to get the muzzle off.

Following Astrid's lead, the other Vikings - now including Snotlout, who had staggered over to join the others when he heard Hiccup's scolding to see who was getting told off - ran to their dragons too, taking their muzzles off and rubbing their snouts in a soothing fashion, and looking at the traps that bound the dragons to the ground.

Hiccup wandered through the dragon-trapping area and stopped at Stormfly and Astrid, who was knelt beside her dragon, attempting to get the trap off the wing.

Stooping down beside Astrid, Hiccup pushed her hands away and inspected the trap himself. Astrid, trusting him, rubbed Stormfly's neck to keep her calm. "Well?" the anxious rider asked as Hiccup worked.

"Almost..." he muttered, and then there was a click and Stormfly gave a cry of triumph, flexing her wings and shaking herself. She bent her head down to nuzzle Hiccup thanks, who was still looking at the trap, and then the dragon pushed herself against her rider, asking for attention which Astrid was all too happy to give.

But she watched Hiccup when he stood up a minute later with a grim expression on his face. "What is it?" she asked quietly, glancing at the trap herself before flicking her eyes back up to meet Hiccup's.

He took a breath to calm down, then informed her, "these are not the traps that we use. This was no accident." Astrid frowned.

"Then whose traps are they?"

Before Hiccup could answer, there was a slow clapping from behind them, and slowly, someone came out of the dark cave where he had been watching the teens.

"His," Hiccup answer Astrid's question, as their dragons' trapper walked into the sunlight and they all saw who it was.

* * *

Alvin grinned and sneered, "yes, that's right, it's me." He glanced briefly behind him, grin not leaving his repelling features as an army of Outcasts appeared out of the cave's darkness behind him, brandishing all types of primarily dragon-killing weapons.

Hidden slightly behind Stormfly, Hiccup carefully concealed himself completely behind the dragon, who had placed herself protectively right behind Astrid. Alvin glanced around the clearing at the trapped dragons, not spotting Hiccup, and focused on the seeming leader of the group.

"So, little Viking girl," Alvin began in a condensing voice not nice to hear.

Astrid made to take a step towards him, but Hiccup hissed from behind Stormfly, "keep him talking until I free the other dragons."

Without looking around and giving away Hiccup's hiding place, Astrid nodded slightly in acknowledgment, and interrupted Alvin's self-centered triumph speech. "So you really think this'll stop us, huh?" She asked in a mirroring condensing voice, making Alvin glare at her as she continued subtly insulting him.

Meanwhile, Hiccup, very carefully keeping behind the trapped dragons, crept around to Meatlug who was whining slightly. He bent down and worked on unsetting the trap, freeing the dragon, but when he had, he immediately put a hand on the Gronkle's nose, keeping her calm, and told her and her master, who had only just noticed Hiccup, not to move until they saw the signal.

Before Fishlegs could ask in fact _what _the signal was, Hiccup crept around to the Twins and their dragon, taking special care to untrap the Zippleback and explain in a furious whisper the same information he had given to the other dragon and rider. Confused, the Twins watched as he then crept over to Snotlout and his trapped Monstorous Nightmare, then glanced at each other and shrugged, turning back to the front to watch Astrid insult Alvin some more.

"Oh and as for so ingeniously trapping our dragons," Astrid drawled, glancing carelessly over at the other dragons and silently noting with glee from their positions that they were free, and waiting for the signal.

She didn't actually know either what the signal was, but she trusted Hiccup.

Crouching behind Hookfang, Hiccup undid that trap, gave the same instructions to Snotlout and left, creeping behind a tree to hide before the rider could ask questions. Hiccup heard Astrid continue her attack with words, and smirked. For all the Outcast tribe had weapons and abilities to use them, they really were a dumb lot and really didn't see a distraction when one was right in front of them.

Hiccup, standing disguised behind the tree, considered calling for Toothless. He had sent his Night Fury to check the coastline, as, being the only dragon in their party, not even mentioning the Night Fury part, he was the fastest of them.

But not only would calling attract the attention of the Outcasts, but Toothless was probably on his way back anyway, perhaps drawn also by Stormfly's cry when she was freed from the trap. Dragons are extremely sensory creatures, and Toothless would have heard the nature of the cry - trapped and freed.

Anyway, they were doing an okay job right now.

Astrid glanced briefly behind her again as Alvin continued boasting about his traps that could hold even the hardest and powerful of dragons. (This was doubtful anyway, but as Toothless hadn't been caught it couldn't be argued against. Yet. Alvin also didn't know that he didn't have the Night Fury trapped.)

As she looked behind her, Astrid caught sight of Hiccup behind the tree, and, seeing her looking, gave her a 'go!' sign, which she took to be the signal.

Vaulting onto the back of her dragon in the middle of Alvin's speech about how great the metal he used was (which didn't really make any sense, as metal was just metal, in any part of the archipelago), Astrid pointed forward with her hand and screamed, "GO!"

Everyone except for the Twins jumped on the back of their freed dragons, who reared up and roared at the Outcasts. Meanwhile, the Twins glanced at each other, eyebrows raised, ignoring the nudging of their dragon behind them.

"THAT was the signal?" Ruffnut said incredulously.

Tuffnut sighed dramatically. "Yeah, we could have totally seen THAT one coming," he agreed with his sister.

Stormfly hovered overhead and Astrid leaned over her dragon's back to yell at the Twins, "just ATTACK!"

This was something they could do. They grinned and clashed helmets - briefly holding their heads in pain afterwards - then clambered on their dragon, who roared in triumph, and rose in the air, spitting gas and spark at the enemy to make fireballs.

The dragon attack, from both air and ground, confused and scared the enemy, and the Outcast army glanced nervously at their leader as Alvin stared, taken aback, at the free dragons. The harmless arrows the soldiers shot bounced off the dragons' scales, not even touching the riders.

Then suddenly, while Hiccup was trying to unset a couple more traps so no more dragons would be hindered, Alvin spotted him, even through the confusion of fire and arrows.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third," he sneered with an evil smile. "Prepare to meet your arrow!"

(He may of meant 'end', but as he was about to fire an arrow at Hiccup, it was appropriate to say arrow if he wanted to be completely literal.)

Alvin drew his own crossbow and fastened a sharp tipped arrow in it, aiming it directly at Hiccup so that it wouldn't miss him - unless he moved, of course - and would dispatch him forever.

Hiccup, focused on the trap, didn't see the arrow coming. He just managed to unset it, and whispered, "yes!" under his breath, pleased, when he heard the screaming of his dragon.

Immediately looking up sharply, he first noticed the arrow soaring straight at him, and reflexively jumped out of the way, so the sharp tip thudded into the tree he had been hiding behind moments before.

And then Hiccup noticed something a little better about the situation: Toothless, who's scream had alerted him to the arrow, was running towards him at top speed. He reached his rider and practically tossed Hiccup on his back before facing the enemy with wings outstretch, furious at their attempt to kill his human.

"Great job, bud, thanks," Hiccup panted, giving Toothless a brief pat on the neck before crouching low on his back and taking control. "Toothless, plasma blast!" he yelled, pointing at the set traps.

The Night Fury immediately fired straight at the traps, causing them to snap shut and cease to be a threat to the dragons. Then Hiccup pushed down on the foot plate and opened Toothless's tail, and up they soared, over the firing dragons, to observe the attack from the sky.

The dragons were winning, easily. There's nothing like dragon attack from the sky where humans can't reach.

"Hold your fire!" Hiccup called to his fellow riders. They all, one by one, stopped firing, leaving the enemy soldiers and their leader peering up anxiously for the next attack. Hiccup got Toothless to hover just above them, Stormfly and Astrid covering his back in case they decided to fire.

"I suggest you retreat, boys," Astrid called down spitefully. Hiccup gave her a look and she rolled her eyes but shut up.

Turning to the ground, Hiccup announced to them,"you can retreat, or we will make sure you are caught, and this time you won't be able to get away." Forgiving by nature, Hiccup wasn't really intending to fire any more at the Outcasts.

But Alvin kept his soldiers there defiantly, staring up at Hiccup, eyes narrowed, ready to attack again. Hiccup hesitated; he really didn't want to continue the attack unless left with no choice.

Thankfully, Snotlout noticed the tension and commanded Hookfang to, "FLAME!" Obeying with a roar, the Monstorous Nightmare's entire body went up in flames, causing some of the army to cry out in alarm as the rest of the dragons growled at them too. Then they started to run away.

"Wait! Don't run! We must make a stand!" Alvin began calling, but as he glanced back at the hovering dragons, he too changed his mind. "Er, actually, yes - RUN! Back to the ships!" he yelled in panic, setting off after his army with soldiers bringing up the rear of running-away-like-bunnies Outcasts.

"Come on, Toothless! Keep 'em going!" Hiccup announced, smiling with the thrill of the chase now. The dragons flew after the Viking Outcasts, occasionally shooting fire to keep them on their toes.

The Outcast-Vikings-on-dragons chase ended at the coastline, where without prompting, Toothless immediately set fire to the Outcast ship bobbing merrily in the bay of a secret shore that he had seen earlier. The wood burst into flames and the ship soon sunk into the salt water, quenching the fire.

"Good work, guys," Hiccup called, surverying the trapped enemy. "Now, keep them there and DO NOT MOVE while I go get my dad."

Astrid nodded in recognition and settled Stormfly next to the army, who spooked at the sight of a not-trapped-dragon-with-rider so close to them. The others followed the dragon rider's lead, so that the Outcasts couldn't run away again.

Hiccup and Toothless flew immediately to the town, and Hiccup dismounted Toothless to run into his house and get his father, also the chief of the Tribe. However in the time it took to get Stoick the Vast's attention - which is still tricky, even when you ARE his Only Son and Heir to the Throne - and both of them setting off again on their dragons, the Outcasts had decided to swim out to another ship, further out, instead of take their chances with the dragons and their riders.

"Drat. Well that's done it," Stoick cursed, landed Thornado, the Thunderdrum, next to Stormfly. Astrid, seeing Hiccup back, made to go after the swimming Outcasts, but Hiccup put Toothless in front of her dragon.

"Don't. It's okay. Dad'll keep a good lookout, but right now it's not worth going after them. It's only a few," he convinced her. Astrid sighed but accepted his reasons, and settled Stormfly down.

"He's right," Stoick added, staring out at the Outcasts. "I'll make sure there's a lookout and if they dare come back then we'll be ready." He turned to his son and thumped Hiccup's shoulder, almost causing the rider to fall off his dragon. "Good work, son," he praised with a smile, then shook Thornado's reins and flew the dragon back to the village.

Hiccup smiled, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He bent forward on his dragon to pat Toothless, who nuzzled his hand affectionately. "Good job too, Toothless. You did great, bud." Hiccup glanced around at the other riders, who were also praising their dragons a job well done. "Alright team. Let's get back to the village. We have a party to organise!"

* * *

True to his word, when they got back, Hiccup and his friends organised a small party to celebrate the brief defeat of the invading Outcasts.

Hiccup strode through the village with Toothless trailing him, smiling at the sight of all the Vikings with their dragons. "Sure, not everyone agrees with the way dragons are accepted and with riders now," he mused aloud. "But luckily our bonds can survive that."

Toothless nuzzled his back and Hiccup turned around and hugged his dragon, overcome with affection, taking Toothless slightly by surprise. But the tame Night Fury quickly nuzzled his again and started on the licking, making Hiccup giggle, something that the dragon loved to do.

"Toothless!" Hiccup laughed, pushing his dragon's nose away so Toothless sat like a cat, happily watching his rider shake the dragon saliva off himself.

Hiccup sighed with contentment and put out a hand that Toothless immediately pushed his nose into it. _We have enemies still, yes,_ he thought as he stood side-by-side with his dragon, watching the other riders stroke their dragons with love, showing their bonds. _But as long as our dragons have our backs and we have theirs, then there's nothing that can defeat us._


End file.
